Make Your Coffee Table Pop: The Power of Proportion

A coffee table sits at the heart of your living room — it’s where guests gather, where you set down your tea, and where your personality gets to shine through styling. The trick to a beautiful coffee table isn’t in how much you put on it, but in how you balance the shapes, sizes, and textures of the objects you choose.

Take, for example, a simple setup with three glass vases: one oversized amber piece, one mid-sized clear vessel, and a petite accent. Each piece has its own weight and volume, but together they create rhythm and harmony. The large amber vase anchors the grouping, the clear glass adds a lighter touch, and the smallest piece completes the visual triangle. Layering a rectangular element — such as a stack of books topped with marble coasters — breaks up the roundness and keeps the design interesting.

Styling tip: Always play with scale. Mix tall with short, heavy with light, matte with glossy. And when in doubt, remember the rule of threes: odd numbers of objects tend to look more natural than even ones.

By varying object sizes, your coffee table feels curated, not cluttered. It’s the perfect way to transform a blank surface into an intentional design moment.